Garage Door Maintenance and Lubrication

During inclement weather especially, we tend to use our home’s vehicle doors more than we use our front doors. Most home’s front doors are pretty simple. A typical front door these days is metal clad with a wood interior. It swings on three hinges and locks with a locking handle and a dead bolt lock. Although all these parts need occasional attention, a decade can go by before you notice a problem. The solution is usually a lubricant or replacement of a relatively inexpensive lock mechanism.

Garage vehicle doors are not so simple, and when it comes to repairs, they can be quite costly. As with many systems within a home, regular maintenance is the most affordable way to manage home costs. Neglected rollers can bind during operation causing extensive and expensive damage to not only the door but the door opener. And, this usually happens at the most inopportune time.

So next time you are making the rounds around your home on the weekend taking care of the “honey do” list, take a few minutes to apply some silicone lubricant to your garage vehicle door. I promise it will be time well spent. Here are a few steps to follow to get the job done without creating more work or problems:

Pick up some silicone spray lubricant the next time you are at a store with a hardware section. Pick up a cheap set of safety glasses if you do not have a pair already (it never hurts to have a couple).

Move your vehicles out of the garage and at least five feet away to avoid any over spray on your paint job.

Make sure you are not wearing nice clothes or your favorite concert t-shirt. Accidents do happen.

Have a disposable rag or roll of paper towels handy to clean up any overage spray.

With your safety glasses in place and the garage door down, attach the spray tube to the nozzle of the can and proceed to spray about a half circle of lubricant on each roller wheel in the tracks.

Spray a small amount in each visible hinge between each door section.

If you can, spray a line of lubricant across the usually black torsion spring above the garage door. (This may require using a small step ladder).

If your door opener has a chain, spray along the chain for a few feet. If you notice the track below the chain is dry or rusted, add a little along there for the guide as your door is lifting.

Lastly, raise and lower your door a few times to move the lubricant around each moving part.

There you have it! You probably just saved yourself $500 in repairs this year. Just add a reminder on your phone for next January and you can repeat the savings.